Session 6 - Man's Advantage over the Beast

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Our entire development is through the influence of the environment. Were it not for the environment, we wouldn't be developing, despite our recollections from previous lives.

For example, children who are lost in the jungle and grow up with animals develop like the animals that raised them. They develop according to the nature of their adopting animal—having the same diseases, the same desires, and the same thoughts as the animals in their environment. Research has shown that their bodies have grown so accustomed to living with the animals in their environment, that if you bring them back to civilization after years of being with the animals in the jungle, even with the best of care, they only live for about 20 years, which is roughly the same number of years as the animals among which they lived.

Our bodies are highly dependent on the society in which we develop. In comparison to animals, man is very adaptable. Cats or dogs, which have been with humans for millennia and have grown accustomed to man's company, can no longer live like wild cats or dogs. They already have a different nature; they pass on to their offspring a different attitude toward man and toward the environment as a result of many years of the influence of the human environment. Yet, they are not as adaptable as humans, who become are influenced by the environment in one life cycle.

People who mingle with a certain environment and are impressed through it become accustomed to it in a much more substantial manner. Compared to the example of animals such as dogs and cats growing accustomed to man and his environment, humans are far more prone to environmental impressions and grow accustomed on a much deeper level to the life of an animal.

Main Points

References

"During the 1950s, Solomon Asch conducted and published a series of laboratory experiments that demonstrated the degree to which an individuals own opinions are influenced by those of a majority group. Together, these experiments are recognized as the Asch conformity experiments or the Asch Paradigm."